Oyeatia, creator and god of man surrenders his deity, descending to the green earth in search of a lost love. Gyossait sleeps in the warm black heart of the dying planet, her dreams seep into the weakening minds of man. The end begins.

Reviews

Rated 1 / 5 stars2011-11-14 16:13:56

Pretentious and Dull

I'm afraid I do not rate this game at all. Right from the beginning, nothing about the narrative or characters is explained nor does it make any sense. Your aim is not specified, no backstory is given, nothing - I was not even clear on what my character was supposed to be. Right until the end of the game not one thing that happened or that I did made sense or seemed to contribute to anything.
The art style was interesting but I did not find the game remotely frightening, and the jump scares and 'spooky' messages came across merely as 'be frightened here' signposting.
As for the gameplay itself, it was alright. A decent enough sidescrolling platformer, though I disliked how landing from a jump instantly cancelled horizontal momentum, and how the player cannot attack/use the shield while jumping. Limiting the number of 'gun mode' powerups seemed an odd choice in certain sections too, as the ability to shoot seemed neccesary to progress.

In conclusion, the game is barely enjoyable on its mechanics alone, and the presentation comes across as pretentious and 'artsy' with no real substance to it. It also does not succeed as a horror game, as it is not frightening.

Rated 5 / 5 stars2011-11-13 20:02:04

Rated 4.5 / 5 stars2011-11-13 16:22:57

Good lessons for others in design.

First of all, I will say that it is dismaying to me that there are not more works of media that dwell more into the kinds of aesthetics and theming that this game does. When you scare your audience, or make a sense of uneasiness in them, it causes them to reflect with subtlety on themselves, and there are few games I find that do that on a reasonable level, even if they are somewhat fear-inducing at times.

The visuals and audio are very pleasing and fitting for the premise of the game, and do an excellent job in conveying the world which both the player and NPCs inhabit--one which is hanging on the fringe of total decay. Worn and weary refugees do a good job conveying where humans lie in the fate of their world's destruction, and the NPCs with the assault rifles do an excellent job at conveying the strife that also plagues them without the need for extra cutscenes or dumping the player into a warzone situation.

The two forms of the player--the first with the shield and the second with the assault rifle--establish a very powerful contrast, especially when the rifle is first introduced. In the context which it is produced, it shows how madly driven the protagonist has become in his quest to save the other deity he loves so much, to the degree that he will take direct offensive action where he would normally be the sort to take passive defensive action, defying the most critical aspect of his being.

The ending is simply lovely, as well, and shows an aspect of romance that I feel should be explored more in media. It teaches an excellent lesson in the fact that sometimes to do the best for somebody you love, you must take action which would revoke your privilege of maintaining that romantic relationship. The fact that the protagonist's newfound violence is what separates him from his love in the end makes it all the more unfortunate and ironic, because he did it for her better in the first place. I didn't have the opportunity to reach the second ending yet, but I assume it is more positive and can be reached by either not using the rifle or not killing any enemies in the first place. The fact that your animal guide is also killed as consequence of your actions is just heartbreaking.

The only quirks in this game lie in the collision--I don't think it was a very wise idea to employ loose character traction on the ground but make exceptions when the character lands a jump or hits a ceiling surface, only by virtue of its inconsistency, although it's not a very glaring issue. Also, the sensitivity for controlling jump height is a tad bit high, but it's managable to work with.

Otherwise, I'm very satisfied with this game.

On a side note, I would love to see a more detailed representation of the player character at least. If one has yet to come into existence, then I would greatly plead for one to be created.